Slowly the doors started to open, gliding to the sides. A bright light filled the gap that was beginning to widen. Until the light disappeared and the doors stopped.
"What just happened?"
Confused gestures all around, the stunned silence lasted for full four seconds.
"Check your scanner!" Rick shouted over the Com.
He was right. The scanner was now showing a lot more than before.
"Must have drained the last power reserves."
"Disabling whatever blocked the sensors."
"Hermes, do you read?"
"This is Hermes, go ahead."
"Check your sensors, it seems that whatever was blocking our sensors is now disabled."
"Checking, stand by."
While I was talking to Hermes Rick had moved to the partially opened door to peek inside. He was now shining a flashlight inside.
"Guys, we should really get these doors open. Take a look."
"What is it?" I asked.
"Looks like a ship of some kind, maybe a shuttle-pod."
"This is Hermes. We confirm sensors have cleared quite a bit. We're detecting an underground installation that seems to be intact. We're not detecting any energy signatures. Proceed with caution."
Meanwhile we where gathered at the gap the doors had managed to open.
"Can we manually open them?"
"They seem to be pretty simple sliding doors, good old manpower should do."
"Less talk, more pulling."
Tom and Serge had already grabbed hold on each side and had started to pull. Pet'l and I joined in. Slowly the doors started to move. After some Moments the resistance all but vanished and the doors slid open easily. Revealing them to be even wider than they appeared before.
Stepping back I surveyed the small ship sitting in the Hangar bay. It looked like a small starship, not really like a shuttle-pod. It was 4 meters wide, according to the scanners almost 10 meters long, significantly larger than the shuttle-pods we use. Taking out my scanner I started to take a closer look.
"Ok Guys, what do we have?"
All had gathered in front of the small ship after having had a first look and taking some scans.
"It looks like a Hangar bay with something that could be a workspace or machine shop next to it. There is a rail-system on the roof that can likely be used to remove parts from a ship to be worked on. On the other side is a set of small compartments. They seem to be connected to the main bay and each other with small openings. Maybe for ventilation, but I have no idea really." Rick stated.
"Ok, how do we proceed?" I asked around.
"I'd like to have a look at the ship and the workspace. Is there a way to examine the set of rooms? The ventilation openings are far too small for us, if they are for ventilation." Pet'l pitched in.
"Ok. Lets do this. Pet'l, you and Rick have a look at the ship and the workshop. Serge and Tom, return to the shuttle-pod and get the crawler. We should be able to explore these rooms with it. I'll have a look at the ship. Any questions?"
As there where none, Tom and Serge set of to the 'pod and the rest headed inside, the front of the ship being visible, the rest lying in total darkness. Scanners in Hand we moved carefully, looking around and trying to pay attention to the scanners. On the port side of the ship where the machine shop was situated we where stopped after six meters, about two thirds the length of the ship. Here a large connecting arm was attached to the ship.
"This is clearly an umbilical. I'm detecting lots of connectors. Electrical, optical and some flexible tubing." Rick stated reading from his scanner.
"Is this including an airlock? Like our umbilicals do?" I asked.
"I can't tell. There seems to be not enough room for someone to move in there. And I can't scan the other side of the wall clearly. We should turn around the other side."
As we walked around back the front of the ship I paid close attention to it. The surface was not really smooth. There where a lot of bumps large and small. And thinks that appeared to be viewport. I stopped in front of the ship to take a look.
"You go ahead, I'll have a look here."
About two thirds up there seemed to be a viewport. About three meters wide and about 20 cm high. Unfortunately it was to high for me to look into it, being simply too small. The scanner was still only of limited use as it was not showing much of the inside of the ship. As there was nothing I could learn here I followed Rick and Pet'l to the starboard side of the ship.
The starboard side of the ship looked pretty much identical to the port one. When I came to the point where the passage was blocked there was a number of marked connectors on the hull. I could not read the markings, but it did look quite similar to what we used for connecting ships to installations. The wall on this side of the Hangar was empty though. When I came to the end of the ship I found two protrusions on the top and the bottom. They where dark and strongly reminded me of our warp nacelles. Could this small ship be equipped with an FTL of some kind?
I rounded the end of the starboard side and came up the Rick and P'tel stood in front of a massive hole in the upper end section of the ship. Looking in it looked like something had taken an enormous bite out of the ship.
"What the?" I was lost for words.
"I think we'll find the answer in the next room, if my assumptions are correct." Rick was apparently not at all lost for word.
I examined the damage closer. It did not look like damage at all. More like something had be removed. There where the end of connectors, but everything was tidy, there where also no burn marks or anything. I pointed my Scanner in the hole and took all the readings I could get. I was about to follow Rick when I heard the call by Tom.
"Ensign, do you read?"
"I read you. Do you have the crawler?"
"Yes, where do you want it?"
"Meet me at the back of the ship."
I walked back to the side of the ship and could see the lights of Tom's and Serge's Suits. Both where carrying cases. I waved at them and the walked over. I took a look around. Close to me was a small passage, not higher than 30 cm. It could be a ventilation opening but it was not covered. I pointed at it.
"Here is where I want the crawler, please set it up."
"Yes, Ensign." They both got to work.
I looked around once more. The back wall was empty, there was not even any sign of ventilation or anything else. Looking up I found the railing system mentioned earlier by Rick. It ran almost to the front of the Hangar right in the middle of it. Behind the ship it took a turn and disappeared into a large opening in the wall where I could see the flickering lights of Rick and Pet'l.
"I'll be right back."
I followed the railing. When I entered the open room I found both men standing in front of a large piece of machine. From the size of it that is what was missing from the ship. Above it was some kind of crane, easily recognizable.
"Wow, what is it?"
"Some kind of power core. Readings are inconclusive." Pet'l answered.
There where parts of the hull and pieces of equipment all around the core.
"It was clearly being worked on. Might explain why the ship is still here."
"The question is by whom?" Rick asked as he picked up what looked like a spanner, but way too small for a human hand.
"I guess we'll find out soon enough." I said as I walked back to the crawler.
"Ready to go?"
"At your convenience, Ma'am."
I walked over to Tom who had set up a portable console to control the crawler. The crawler was a small robot that was remotely controlled and was now sitting in front of the opening. It had two chain drives that made it highly maneuverable, able to turn on the spot. It could pick up stuff with its small manipulator arms and bring them back. It sat in front of a box trailing a thin optical cable which was in turn connected to the console on a tripod which was operated by Tom. The console was in projector mode, projection the camera image from the robot on the wall.
"Connection to the Hermes is good?"
"This is Hermes, signal is five by five. We have the popcorn, just waiting for you."
"Then by all means. Get going."
With that the small robot made its way into the wall and we focused on the image on the wall.
It entered what looked like a corridor. About one meter in there was an opening to the right. With a nod from me the crawler turned right into a room filled with shelves littered with equipment and tools.
"Looks like spare parts if you ask me. Too bad we can't look at the upper levels of the shelves." Tom mumbled.
"Agreed. Let's have a look at the lower shelves and see what we can find."
The crawler went by a shelve that was filled with small pieces of equipment.
"That looks like an optical wire, can you zoom in?"
The image enlarged, showing something that could easily be mistaken for an optical wire.
"The connector is different, but it looks very much like it. Continue."
It took the crawler half an hour to scout the first half of the bottom levels of the shelves, revealing quite some pieces of equipment that looked familiar yet different.
"This is Hermes, I think you can continue to the next room."
"Understood Hermes.
All right, back the crawler out and see what else we find."
The image turned and the crawler was following the retracting wire back the way it came. When it reached the doorway it turned right and continued on. After some meters it came to a dead end.
"Must be a closed hatch or something. Sensor indicate an open space behind it."
"Any energy or atmospheric readings?"
"No difference in the Atmosphere. It shows what could be a very faint energy signature, but it is hard to tell. Wait one."
The image shifted colors, showing different spectrums of radiation. The faint outlines of a hatch was now visible. On the image the manipulator arms of the crawler approached the edges of the hatch. They easily widened the gap, bending the edge of the hatch. Manipulation the controls Tom was bending the hatch to one side, ripping it out of its fixture.
"Ok, that was not elegant. But we're in."
The crawler proceeded into a low room that seemed to hold more shelves. This time they only had three levels filled with rectangular boxes. The boxes where sealed and none seemed to be empty. We stared in silence as the crawler approached the first shelve. The box was clearly containing something very dark that was barely visible.
"What is that? Stasis chambers?"
"No idea. Could be their version of a fridge."
"Can you pinpoint the energy signature?"
"Yes, I think. I'm trying to move the crawler to it."
The image shifted away from the shelve over to something that looked like geometrical bumps randomly distributed on the wall. A green square was highlighting one of them. The image zoomed in on it. It featured a blank surface and I small object that was slowly pulsing.
"Ok, what do we do? Try to get it out?" Rick was being his usual self, he had joined us unnoticed. Which is not a hard thing to do with no atmosphere to carry sound.
"I think this is a bit above our pay-grade. Let's tie in the powers-that-be."
"Hermes, please respond."
"Hermes, go ahead."
"You've received the sensor data from the crawler?"
"Confirmed. Wait one."
We looked at each other sighting.
"Do you think you can gather significant more data by conducting more scans with the equipment you have currently deployed?" Dr. Schmitz over the channel.
We where looking at Rick and Pet'l. Rick shortly looked at Pet'l and then answered.
"Hermes, I think we got all the data we can get at this point." Rick explained.
"All right. Please return to the Hermes. We have to analyze the data and decide on our next steps." The captain ordered.
"Understood. Should we leave the crawler behind?"
"Pack it up and bring it home."
After retrieving the crawler we all returned to the 'pod in silence. Our minds swirling with what we had just found. After we entered the shuttle-pod I repressured it so we could take off the helmets. Checking the time I was surprised that we had spent almost six hours down here.
"All right. Everybody, secure for take-off."
Again, Rick was in the copilot seat. "Is that enough room for takeoff?"
"Oh, you're of little faith!" I smiled back at him.
After everyone was secured I ran the take-off checklist.
"Pod 1 to Hermes, ready for take-off."
"Confirmed. We have you on sensors."
I applied power to the gravity engines and the pod lifted effortlessly off the ground. The course already calculated I adjusted the heading and ignited the main engines. A moderate vibration ran through the ship and we where pressed into our seats as we achieved escape velocity.
Docking with the Hermes was uneventful. Before too long the suits had been stored and we where all greeted by the captain and Dr. Schmitz.
"Good Job everybody. Have some rest and refresh yourself. We'll go over the data you retrieved and analyze the samples you managed to bring back. There'll be a meeting tomorrow to decide what our next steps will be. Dismissed."
With that I said my good byes and headed for my quarters.